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Thank goodness we don’t have to worry about endless playoff permutations anymore, because the official competition website couldn’t even be trusted last weekend.
Now it’s simple. Playoff rugby, the winners advance to the championship final and the premier next weekend.
Sorry Wellington fans, your team is not playing, despite some sources leading you to believe the Lions would be in action in the semi-finals.
READ MORE:
* Miter Cup Power Ranking 10: Waikato Unmasked as Fraud Ahead of Playoffs
* Miter Cup 10 talking points: Canterbury off the hook, North Harbor plunged into limbo
* Miter Cup 10: places for semifinals, relegation in play in the middle of a traffic jam in the tense final round
* Miter Cup 10: Wellington Pursuit Shield and Semifinals, Canterbury Fight for Survival
Final round confusion
Hours after the final round concluded last Sunday, some Wellington fans checked the rankings on the competition’s official website and believed they had reached the semi-finals.
They had not. But no one was in a rush to make sure the correct positions were displayed on the website and in the All Blacks app.
Unacceptable.
Official posts on social media showed the correct semifinalists. So surely someone could take a minute to manually adjust the rankings to show that Waikato finished fourth, ahead of Canterbury (fifth) and Wellington (sixth) in the tiebreakers.
The final round disaster was not helped by some commentators who incorrectly told viewers that point difference was the main tiebreaker when two teams were tied, when in fact head-to-head results were.
Michael Bradley / Getty Images
Bay of Plenty’s Chase Tiatia in action against North Harbor last weekend.
Burning bay of plenty
What a story would it be if the Steamers started and claimed their second national title, and their first since 1976.
Certainly there is no team with more momentum heading into the playoffs, while it can also be said that they are playing the best rugby of the eight semi-finalists.
Remember, they started the season 1-4 and were favorites to drop after Tasman beat them 33-7 in the fifth round.
All they’ve done since is win, adding five straight wins to qualify as the third seed.
If they finish Tasman’s title defense in Nelson on Saturday night, they could be the favorites to win it all.
Phil Walter / Getty Images
Salesi Rayasi has scored 13 attempts, the most in the league.
Salesi Rays
There is no more exciting player in this year’s competition than Auckland winger Salesi Rayasi.
The signed Hurricane is sure to finish the competition at the top of the scoring charts, given he made 13 attempts, five more than the next best: Taranaki’s Jacob Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens.
The 24-year-old has also taken 24 clean breaks, three more than Tasman’s Leicester Fainga’anuku.
In other words, Waikato better buckle up before the semi-final against Auckland at Eden Park on Saturday afternoon.
Kerry Marshall / Getty Images
Hawke’s Bay has opened the doors for their semi-final against Taranaki on Saturday.
Free admission to McLean Park
Congratulations to those who made it possible for Hawke’s Bay to open the doors and allow punters to watch their home semifinal against Taranaki on Saturday afternoon for free.
In a year that has included a severe drought, Covid-19 and recent floods, a group of local businesses and the Napier City Council have come together to make it possible.
“With the support of fantastic partners and the Napier City Council we are privileged to be able to make the semifinal of this weekend free and free so that everyone can forget about all the challenges for a couple of hours and come to enjoy a football semifinal in the sun, ”said Hawke’s Bay Rugby Executive Director Jay Campbell.
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The McLean Park gates will open at 3 p.m. prior to the 4.35 p.m. start, and seats will be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis.
The Magpies will host the championship final against Otago or Northland next Friday night, should they defeat Taranaki.
A sigh of relief
You just know that there are a lot of relieved teams, and fans, outside of Canterbury relieved that the 14-time champions did not sneak into the playoffs.
It’s similar to the 2015 Crusaders, who struggled all season, before heating up down the stretch and missing the playoffs by a single point of competition.
The way they were playing with Richie McCaw and Daniel Carter firing, there’s a good chance they would have won it all had they joined.
Canterbury, having beaten the top teams Tasman and Auckland the last fortnight, could well have done the same in this year’s Miter Cup 10.
We’ll never know after they missed a tiebreaker to Waikato, but the confirmed semifinalists should consider themselves lucky.
